


Caught in Small Spaces

by CartoonJessie



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, The Last Jedi - Freeform, the last Jedi au, what if they escaped the supremacy together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 22:50:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13110147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CartoonJessie/pseuds/CartoonJessie
Summary: After the Supremacy is destroyed by Holdo's sacrifice, Rey wakes with an unconscious Ben by her side. But what if she doesn't leave him to fend for himself and takes him with her to the Falcon? As he wakes several minutes later in a tiny escape pod with Rey by his side, there's little else to do but figure out their future. [Reyloisasanta gift for graef9097]





	Caught in Small Spaces

Her ears were still ringing when she woke aboard the Supremacy. Smoke filled her nostrils and she moaned softy as she pushed herself up from the cold floor. Not too far from her, she saw the lifeless body of Ben – or Kylo – she wasn’t even sure who he was anymore.

Between them lay Luke’s lightsaber, broken in two now, and with a heavy heart she crawled to it and picked up the pieces before she kept on crawling towards her enemy – and also her friend – and turned him over. Touching his cheek, she realized that his body wasn’t cold, and she thought she could see him breathe.

She immediately let go of him again, a frown on her face as she considered what to do. She had rejected his offer to… to what, precisely? To rule the universe with him? A preposterous idea. She didn’t want such power, and it scared her that he would want it with such ease.

Violently, she coughed some of the smoke from her lungs as she looked around the room. They were alone – for now – but she needed to get out. From studying the schematics of Dreadnoughts she knew that there were escape pods nearby – big ones, full of luxury – but also tiny ones, like the one she had arrived in.

She needed one of those so Chewie could pick her up in the Falcon, but felt conflicted about leaving Ben behind, especially considering the fact that the Supremacy was now adrift, and for all she knew it could blow up at any second.

Tucking away the remains of Luke’s lightsaber underneath her belt, as well as his crossguard, she was determined to get the both of them out of there before the Dreadnought suffered further damage and killed them.

Putting her arm underneath his shoulder and moving his arm over her neck, she tried to pull him up, realizing that he weighed a ton and only felt heavier because he wasn’t conscious. Waking him seemed like a worse idea though, because she couldn’t imagine him going along willingly. She hadn’t come all this way to fail in her mission. She didn’t want to give up just yet.

She knew that perhaps she had no right to kidnap him like thus, but she muttered: “You didn’t hesitate either when you took me along on Takodana. I’m just returning the favor.”

As she made her way towards the elevator, she could not help but pant, but as she realized that the Force could help, she focused, and suddenly his weight seemed to lessen, until he seemed to weigh hardly anything at all, and she was able to make a good speed.

The elevator itself was gone, wrecked in whatever tragedy had befallen the Supremacy, and so Rey had to jump to the floor beneath them, once again aided by the Force.

“Please don’t have him wake now,” she prayed as they landed smoothly and she quickly rushed to one of the escape pods further down the hallway. As the hatch to the escape pod opened, she moved him inside, realizing that these pods hardly seemed to be made for men his size. It was a wonder that he was still unconscious, for he didn’t seem to have any external injuries, but she thanked the Force for it. Perhaps this was just a sign that she was doing the right thing – that the Force wanted her to do this too.

She pushed him to the side of the escape pod as much as she could, making herself as small as possible as she lay on her side next to him, hardly fitting between him and the walls of the pod. These things weren’t made for two, and she realized that now, but what other option did she have?

She could hardly move as she closed the pod again, and ejected it from the remains of the Supremacy.

With one hand against Ben’s chest (there really was no other place for her to put it), she took out the small beacon from underneath her arm swathes and looked out the tiny window for the proper time to activate it. With the debris of the Supremacy around them, she decided to wait a little longer, and she was baffled by what she saw. The Supremacy was torn in two, and there were more debris here than before – like the rebels had torn through this Dreadnought with one of their own ships – at lightspeed.

It would be dangerous to have Chewbacca drop out of lightspeed among the wreckage, and they were already floating towards a safer area now. Just a few more moments and she could signal her friend…

Of course, as the Force could have predicted, this was the moment that Ben jolted awake. He could hardly move in the small space, and Rey could feel his heartbeat pick up underneath her hand, and hardly dared to breathe as she looked at him. As though he somehow would not notice her then.

It took him a second to assess the situation, and as he looked at Rey and then out the small window to the Dreadnought as it was torn in two, he frowned. Turning back to Rey in the small area, he realized that he was closer than he had ever imagined her to want to be to him.

“Are you alright?” she asked, her voice so soft that for a moment, he forgot that she had rejected him – or that they had fought for the ownership of Luke’s lightsaber.

But the thought only left him for a second, and then it was back, cutting him and making his gut turn in shame and humiliation. Though the reminder of her betrayal stirred some dark thoughts in him, the closeness of her entire body did quite the opposite, and the way her hand rested on his chest calmed him down enough to reply.

“Yes.”

The answer was brief, his tone conflicted as he gazed out at the Supremacy again.

“I need to go back,” he suddenly said, his tone urgent. “They can’t find us like this.”

Rey wondered why for a moment, until she realized that if they were found by the First Order, and he was seen escaping with her, no lie would be big enough to cover who had hurt Supreme Leader Snoke.

“Don’t worry,” she said quickly. “In a minute I’ll signal for the Falcon to pick us up. The First Order won’t get to us first.”

He looked at her as though she had gone insane, his entire torso swelling in rage as he tried to simultaneously calm himself, but he wasn’t very good at calmth.

“Why would you think I’d want the Falcon to pick us up?” he demanded to know, his voice in mild panic. “Did you hear anything I said aboard the Supremacy? About letting the past die? About ruling the Galaxy? I can’t just fly away in that piece of junk and leave Hux in charge!”

They were both frowning at the other’s stubbornness, both angry with the other’s vision, and both frustrated by the tiny box they found themselves in. They were too close to one another, and they both desperately tried to shift away from the other, but without success. In fact, it felt like they only shifted closer to each other.

“But my vision came true!” she protested. “You turned! You will stand by me!”

“No, you will stand by me!” he argued, looking into her eyes with a pleading gaze. “You can join the First Order, Rey! We don’t need more Starkillers or Dreadnoughts, but we need a firm hand and good leadership in order to bring equality to this universe! You can’t choose the Rebellion just as you can’t rule over chaos! Terrorism will make the road to peace harder! You must understand this!”

Rey didn’t know what to respond.

She was trying to understand him, she truly was, but it was hard to imagine herself as a force for good, working alongside the First Order.

Taking her hand from his chest, she slowly reached out to him, saying softly: “We both thought we saw our future when we touched, but what we saw doesn’t seem to have been the same. Either we were both mistaken, or the Force wasn’t done with what it wanted to show us!” She sounded hopeful now. “Maybe we just need… a better perspective!”

He calmed at those words, and offered her a nod as he moved his own hand to his mouth and bit the tip of his glove so he could take it off. With his bare hand exposed to her, the aggravation and frustration of just moments before seemed to disappear, and all he felt was an eagerness at the thought of touching her fingertips again, and as he saw how she had a brave little smile on her face, he couldn’t even stop himself from returning it.

Despite their arguments and different opinions, they weren’t truly enemies, not really. Not anymore.

Hopefully the Force could show them the way.

As their fingertips touched, they both held their breaths, but the visions they had longed to see did not appear. In fact, they saw nothing – just each other, awkwardly crammed together in a very small space, and their hopeful gazes grew more serious as they realized they weren’t connecting to the Force like they had before.

“Do you think we need to meditate?” Rey whispered, as though speaking louder would upset the Force, and he smiled for a brief second.

“I don’t think meditation is the key…” he said slowly. “We’ve made these connections between ourselves in our loneliest moments these past days. Maybe we’re just not lonely enough right now for the Force to bind us.”

As they were still touching, Rey looked at their fingertips, slowly moving her fingers between his, the palms of their hands pressed together now, even closer than they were. As they held hands, there were a million thoughts going through their minds, but the moment they looked at each other, those thoughts seemed to disappear again, and all they felt was this warm affection for one another. For a split second, nothing else in this universe mattered.

She knew he was right. They weren’t feeling so alone in this moment, and as she moved closer to him, she realized he was pulling her closer to him as well, inviting her to rest comfortably in his arms, and he rested the top of his head on hers while they hugged. It was a strange sensation, one that they wanted to give into for much longer than this, but they knew they had no time for this, and each second they indulged was a second too many.

“I’ll signal Chewbacca to pick us up,” she said as she turned on the signal, and he didn’t protest.

“But once you’re picked up, I go back,” he said. “I can’t go with you.”

“I know,” she whispered. “I wish you could.”

“You’ll always be welcome by my side,” he told her. “If not today, then maybe tomorrow.”

As they hugged, they noticed the Millennium Falcon drop out of light speed and pick up their escape pod before it shot away again, and as they opened the hatch and crawled out, Rey first and then Ben, she apologetically pulled his lightsaber from underneath her belt and offered it to him.

He took it, though his eyes lingered on the broken lightsaber of Skywalker that she now had.

“It broke,” she said as she took both pieces in her hand, not sure what to do with it.

For a moment, he bent down a bit as he looked at it, noticing that the crystal was split in half.

“You can still make a lightsaber with those two parts. Actually, two lightsabers. But they won’t be stable. They’ll be like mine.”

As he looked up at her, he carefully offered: “I can show you how to make it – teach you how to do it. I’ve done it once before.”

She was confused by his offer, and said: “I thought you wanted this lightsaber, and now you’re helping me fix it?”

He shrugged. “It once belonged to me. But that was back when it was stable. Now that it’s broken, it doesn’t really hold more value than this one.” He tucked his lightsaber behind his own belt when suddenly the door opened and Chewbacca walked in, carrying his crossbow while he glared at Kylo.

“Ben’s not staying,” Rey said, blushing. “We must drop him off again.”

Chewbacca roared in protest, mentioning what a hassle it had been to travel to those shipwrecks in the first place, and how they were needed with the Resistance.

“You’re right, we should hurry,” Rey agreed. “I’ll make it a quick goodbye!”

She had hardly said that or Chewbacca turned around and left again, not looking at Kylo, who had only glared at Chewbacca the entire time, the ache in his side worse with the Wookie in the room.

“I just want you to know…” Rey said slowly. “I’m not giving up on you. You know that.”

His gaze was surprisingly gentle as he nodded. “And I’m still offering a place by my side, you know that too. I’ll try to make things right, but I still think it would be easier with you by my side.”

As they looked at each other, there was hope in their eyes, and when the door opened, they were distracted as Chewbacca suddenly walked in-between them, to the pod, dropping off half a dozen Porgs, roaring that they were a problem for the First Order now.

Both Ben and Rey were confused as Chewbacca left again, then looked at the escape pod and the Porgs that seemed rather disoriented while they walked around the box.

Ben raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure I can declare myself Supreme Leader of the First Order when I’m covered in feathers and bird shit.”

Rey chuckled as she took his hand, hoping to say a sweet goodbye before Chewbacca entered again, and she was forced to let go as Chewbacca once more dropped off several Porgs in the Escape Pod.

He roared that he was returning to the wreckage in a minute, but Ben protested.

“I’m not taking your pets with me!”

As Chewbacca roared violently and lifted his crossbow, mentioning that he had no right to make demands in the ship of the father he had killed, Ben gulped.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “His death wasn’t in vain,” he added slowly. “Snoke is dead. Without Han…” He gulped heavily, and Rey could feel how strong his emotions were in that moment – not full of hate, but full of gratitude and conflict, and if there was hate, then it was hate for himself, not for Han.

“It’s alright,” Rey said quickly, taking his hand. “Get ready. We both have plenty of things to do now. I’m sure our paths will cross again soon.”

He nodded, glad she had saved him from this difficult topic, and not minding that Chewbacca was watching, he stepped closer to her and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Thank you,” he muttered, before he moved back into the pod, and Chewbacca headed to the cockpit again while Rey remained by his side, watching him move about without trying to crush the Porg.

“What are these things even?” he muttered, quite clearly distracted by them, turning to Rey in mild despair. “Do they need to come with me?”

“Do this, and I owe you a favor?” she suggested sheepishly, and his chuckle warmed her heart.

“I don’t suppose you’ll come back with me then?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Not yet, Ben. You know this.”

“I do,” he said with a sigh. “I’ll be patient.”

As he lay down, he moved his hand to close the hatch, but Rey stopped him just in time by taking his hand in hers and leaning over the pod to kiss him on the lips.

It was a quick kiss – not particularly passionate or romantic – but it conveyed every bit of gratitude and affection she felt for him – and as she let go of his hand and stepped back, she smiled, noticing how he was smiling too.

“May the Force be with you,” she said.

“With both of us,” he replied, still a little baffled from what she had just done, his gaze incredulous, and he closed the pod again.

As he winked at her behind the glass, she chuckled, also because some of the Porg were climbing over him, trying to get a good view of the window, and as she lifted her hand to wave, she felt how they dropped out of lightspeed and he was dropped among the wreckage again.

The Falcon sped away rather quickly after that, and she soon lost sight of him, but she couldn’t stop her smile just yet.

She had no answers, only more questions than before, but if she listened to her heart, then she knew that things were right. The Force was at peace, too, and they were heading in the right direction.

They’d figure this thing out, whatever it was. One day at a time. And her vision of standing by his side would not remain just that. It would become true one day. She just had to hold faith, and the Force would do the rest.

 

**The End**

 


End file.
